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Just critiquing some of our late game possessions, and (other than the last 4.4), the biggest agony was the stepback Cassell took with 1:30 left. Texas totally - and I mean totally - lost Boat on that play. Boat drove and found Cassell in the corner, Cassell (who had just missed a 3 on a ball reversal from Hamilton after a Boat kickout) up faked, dribbled into the stepback and Boat fanned out to the three-point line all by his lonesome. Holland was under the basket 20 feet away after apparently switching, only nobody else was in on the switch. It honestly wasn't a bad look for Cassell, but more court awareness and we get a wide open three from our best player.
Our other looks in our late drought weren't too bad. Boat's drives were great chances, just a bit unlucky (fell off the front rim the first time, damn close to goaltending the second time). Brimah's lefty jump hook in the paint was a good post move without the finish (the airball on the other side was yeesh). Hamilton would have had a good look at a 3 and gave Cassell a better look at his 3, which really was close to going in and rattled out. Boat had a pretty good, but not great look at a 3 (a big was flying out at him) after he kicked it to an open Samuel twice earlier in the possession, which was a dead end. The shot was right on line and front rimmed it giving it a little extra arc (would have put us up 8). Any one of those shots might go in on a different day. On the boards, we were unlucky - I didn't like the Facey over the back call (the Texas player jumped back into him and the contact was pretty much incidental), Boat was just a smidgen late trying to swipe the ball back out and they could have let that one go, since the Texas guy came down with possession anyway, and Brimah got tied up after getting to another board where it might have been a quick held ball (but Brimah has to be better at securing that one to himself).
The game-winning three it's honestly hard to tell if we were supposed to switch that. Hamilton played as if he was expecting a switch, but Boat was in ball denial on the high side of his man (Holland) and got his arms locked with him a bit, so Holland didn't even really set the screen on Hamilton - Boat essentially set the screen (and rolled his ankle). It turned into a play where one guy screened two men, even in their wildest dreams in their play design, Texas couldn't have hoped it would work out that well. My best guess is that, to the degree anyone was to blame, Boat was too intent on ball denial and just got accidentally caught in a position where he couldn't switch (and rolled his ankle before he could make a desperation fly by). I prefer that explanation, because the others are that we didn't know what we were supposed to do on defense after two timeouts, or that Hamilton quit on the play.
Incidentally, if Texas didn't have a timeout left, Boat probably would have won that game with his defense. He aggressively covered the entire Texas backcourt on a dribble weave and they were going nowhere - it looked like the end of the Kentucky game last year.
Our other looks in our late drought weren't too bad. Boat's drives were great chances, just a bit unlucky (fell off the front rim the first time, damn close to goaltending the second time). Brimah's lefty jump hook in the paint was a good post move without the finish (the airball on the other side was yeesh). Hamilton would have had a good look at a 3 and gave Cassell a better look at his 3, which really was close to going in and rattled out. Boat had a pretty good, but not great look at a 3 (a big was flying out at him) after he kicked it to an open Samuel twice earlier in the possession, which was a dead end. The shot was right on line and front rimmed it giving it a little extra arc (would have put us up 8). Any one of those shots might go in on a different day. On the boards, we were unlucky - I didn't like the Facey over the back call (the Texas player jumped back into him and the contact was pretty much incidental), Boat was just a smidgen late trying to swipe the ball back out and they could have let that one go, since the Texas guy came down with possession anyway, and Brimah got tied up after getting to another board where it might have been a quick held ball (but Brimah has to be better at securing that one to himself).
The game-winning three it's honestly hard to tell if we were supposed to switch that. Hamilton played as if he was expecting a switch, but Boat was in ball denial on the high side of his man (Holland) and got his arms locked with him a bit, so Holland didn't even really set the screen on Hamilton - Boat essentially set the screen (and rolled his ankle). It turned into a play where one guy screened two men, even in their wildest dreams in their play design, Texas couldn't have hoped it would work out that well. My best guess is that, to the degree anyone was to blame, Boat was too intent on ball denial and just got accidentally caught in a position where he couldn't switch (and rolled his ankle before he could make a desperation fly by). I prefer that explanation, because the others are that we didn't know what we were supposed to do on defense after two timeouts, or that Hamilton quit on the play.
Incidentally, if Texas didn't have a timeout left, Boat probably would have won that game with his defense. He aggressively covered the entire Texas backcourt on a dribble weave and they were going nowhere - it looked like the end of the Kentucky game last year.
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